Short Summary

The people of Taiwan are admiring the courage of one of their opera signers, 21 year-old Chiang Kwei-ching, who recently staged her last performance.

Description

The people of Taiwan are admiring the courage of one of their opera signers, 21 year-old Chiang Kwei-ching, who recently staged her last performance. Chiang Kwei-ching is suffering from bone cancer and has been given just three months to live. Despite the loss of one leg, the prime donna gave a flawless performance of Yu Erh Chieh, in the well-read Chinese classic 'Dream in the Red chamber'.

At the end of the performance she finished with the lines "Now I come to the end of my life, my heart is being shattered by a piercing pain and tear drops smear the ground underfoot."
The doctor said that anyone else of her age would have laid down and waited their fate. But not Miss Chiang. Well aware of her numbered days, she decided to muster all her remaining energy for a last performance of her career which started when she was only twelve. This last effort exhausted her and Doctors say it cut short her life by at least a month. Several days later she became bed-ridden.

SYNOPSIS: This is Miss Chiang Kwei-ching, a leading opera singer in Taiwan. She won the hearts of her people in this, her last performance as Yu Erh Chieh in the well-read Chinese classic, 'Dream in the Red Chamber'. Miss Chiang is going to die. She has bone cancer and despite the loss of one leg, she gave a flawless performance. Doctors have given the twenty-one-year-old prima donna just three months to live.

Miss Chiang now spends hours drawing and writing. She had mustered up all her remaining energies for the last performance of a career which started when she was twelve. This last effort totally exhausted her and left her bedridden. Doctors say that it cut short her life by at least one month. Miss Chiang says she has no regrets. Proceeds from the performance went to a cancer research fund, and she is glad that long after she dies, people will still remember her artistic achievement as well as her courage.

At the end of her performance Miss Chiang finished with the lines: "Now I come to the end of my life, my heart is being shattered by a piercing pain and tear drops smear the ground underfoot."